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Ask HN: Does the Framework laptop stand the test of time?

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31–40 of 87 posts

Re: Ask HN: Does the Framework laptop stand the test of time?

#31

Be careful what people will write here. A lot will have buyer bias because they want to justify their purchase.

That's an interesting point. I've often heard the inverse: to beware of reviews from those who receive items for free, as few products are bad propositions when there is no associated cost.

There’s a massive difference between using limited funds to buy your daily driver, and buying a product specifically for the purposes of a review.

Re: Ask HN: Does the Framework laptop stand the test of time?

#32
I bought mine in 2022 and I still use it as my main system. There is not much to complain about. As someone else said, the laptop tends to get warm and my impression is that this has happened more frequently in recent years. Linux support is great. I don't rely much on the battery, so that's not an issue for me personally.

I don't know how long this one will last me, but I will try to keep it alive with spare parts for as long as possible. Repairing things, especially if they are treasured things, feels good. There was no need for any repairs yet, but I expect it to happen eventually. Or maybe I just want to upgrade things at some point.

Re: Ask HN: Does the Framework laptop stand the test of time?

#33
I have an i5. It’s decent but the machine stopped booting on battery after the cmos battery died. They sent me a bypass kit which is nice. The delete key on the keyboard failed and this is apparently a common issue, so I’m disappointed to have had to replace the keyboard when they know it’s their error. Horrible speakers.

I love the idea of it but am meh on it after 2.5 years. Good Linux support though.

Re: Ask HN: Does the Framework laptop stand the test of time?

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love mine too (have owned every 13" they have made either personally or at work, plus the new 16"). Having the actual usb recessed and having a sacrificial usb-c as the one you use has saved taken me from breaking usb-c ports at roughly one a year to zero. The upgradeability and serviceability is real as well. That beings said, my complaints about them are: They are a few hundred dollars more expensive than compara…

Tbh it probably is cheaper for them to test that it powers up ... There would be nothing worse than building a laptop to find it was an RMA deal.... I would expect that the social media backlash could kill the product...

Yah, it does, but just leave it assembled to the point you had to assemble it and ship it rather than making me put the ram/gpu/nvme/whatever back in putting wear on the insertion slots and taking my time. I get that they are trying to put a barrier big enough that people are willing to pay the few hundred dollar convenience tax, so maybe just leave the NVME out and avoid the wear and tear on the GPU and the ram. It's basically the same barrier because you are removing the keyboard and undoing a bunch of scary screws in both cases but you get to spend less on labor at the factory and I have to install less crap myself (I was always buying the self assembled one, I like that stuff).

Re: Ask HN: Does the Framework laptop stand the test of time?

#35

Be careful what people will write here. A lot will have buyer bias because they want to justify their purchase.

That's an interesting point. I've often heard the inverse: to beware of reviews from those who receive items for free, as few products are bad propositions when there is no associated cost.

It is easy to make any "logic" make sense with words like "if you build it, they will come" or "there are no bad products, only bad pricing" but the reality is that sometimes you can build the best product but if your customers don't know about it, they can't come to you. Also, there is such a thing as a bad product which is bad even for zero dollars because humans are the end of the day have a finite lifespan and at some point it isn't worth wasting my time with an Intel 14th gen processor because I don't want to gamble with the possibility of an RMA. Even if someone gave me a processor for free, there is a cost to my time and the rest of the computer which will sit idle as I wait for a replacement.

I guess the point is I don't know which if the two above is correct. I know sometimes I have biases that even I'm not aware of though...

Re: Ask HN: Does the Framework laptop stand the test of time?

#36
post #14

I have one, still my main laptop and I don't see a reason to change that. Battery life is better than any other laptop I've had, though that may say more about my other laptops than the Framework. Biggest gripe: no touchscreen and, despite open specs, still no aftermarket touchscreen several years later.

> Battery life is better than any other laptop I've had 3-4 hours like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42564335 ?

I usually get about 6 hours, though of course it depends on workload.

Re: Ask HN: Does the Framework laptop stand the test of time?

#37
Been using my Framework 13 since launch. It's definitely better than the MacBook I had before it. I have not had to repair it even once (vs 3 times in 3 years for the Mac).

The "repairability" doesn't really matter much when it doesn't break. Any CPU from the last 10 years should be good enough for me to just be coding in vim. Perhaps faster compilation speed for Rust but I mostly write Go anyways.

I'm hoping new parts will still be supported/available in 10 years when I'll actually consider upgrading anything.

The best thing about it is Linux support. I have friends who regularly get driver issues or whatever on other systems but that's never been a problem for me

Re: Ask HN: Does the Framework laptop stand the test of time?

#38
post #30

I've loved mine. Some issues with the heat management and fans--but that's also been a Linux/laptop thing--fresh thermal paste, a new (warranted!) fan replacement part, and finally figuring out best drivers setup have brought it roughly in line with a Dell or whatever. Really enjoyed when I recently upgraded the memory on my tower last year, and threw the old ones on the Framework and it worked great. The expansion s…

> but that's also been a Linux/laptop thing--fresh thermal paste, a new (warranted!) fan replacement part, Is there a (video-)guide on how to do that? Why was the fan replacement warranted?

Framework have extensive, ifixit-style guides on their website: https://guides.frame.work/c/Framework_Laptop

Re: Ask HN: Does the Framework laptop stand the test of time?

#39
post #12

I bought mine in September. Overall, a big disappointment, the battery is less than mediocre (under linux). Unfortunately I missed the refund window. I bought it after using a mac m1, so i was somehow under impression that i am buying a laptop to be used during a train ride, or watching a movie in a bed. It's none of that, i bought another "movable desktop pc". Everything else is OK.

> or watching a movie in a bed The battery doesn't last the length of a movie? Are you getting hardware decoding of the video?

It does, but barely, and it's not like I am planning "okey I am gonna watch movie in 2 hours, let's plug that thing right now". It's either I was using it, so it's not full 100%, or I wasn't, and it's 0%

Re: Ask HN: Does the Framework laptop stand the test of time?

#40
post #20

I used a Framework 13" as my daily driver for 3 years. I still have it, and now I also have a Framework 16", which has been my daily driver for the last six months. The user serviceability and upgrade stories are real. The hardware isn't as svelte as Apple's, but mine has traveled all over the world and has yet to have any major issues. The one hardware failure I had was that the USB-C half of the charging cable on m…

I love mine too (have owned every 13" they have made either personally or at work, plus the new 16"). Having the actual usb recessed and having a sacrificial usb-c as the one you use has saved taken me from breaking usb-c ports at roughly one a year to zero. The upgradeability and serviceability is real as well. That beings said, my complaints about them are: They are a few hundred dollars more expensive than compara…

I fully expect that the intention is to force you into opening up the laptop to install the RAM. RAM is so easy to install that there's basically no risk of the customer messing up, and it exposes you to how easy it is to open up your laptop and how high quality the build is. Worked very well for me, I knew I would not accept buying anything of a lower standard before I even powered it on for the first time.
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